Yesterday I wrote about the negative effects of the barriers between the IT and Business communities. Interestingly, while here at the Global 360 Customer Conference I noticed a dilemma addressed in almost all customer presentations… who should be the impetus for application development: IT or Business? They all had the same answer – it depends.
While this indecisiveness may seem like a cop-out, it does depend, but that should not matter. Oftentimes, as IT implements/develops, tweaks, and maintains systems, they determine creative approaches to addressing inefficiencies within the business. But it is all too common that when they present solutions to problems unknown by the business community, they are dismissed. Those who are already too busy firefighting can be frustrated by those creating problems where none were thought to have existed. An organization’s culture should foster and embrace a proactive approach to addressing problems and making improvements. After all, isn’t that what Six Sigma, TQM, etc. are all about?
Conversely, the business community should always be seeking improvements across the organization. A tweak here and a tweak there can mean the difference between growth and stagnation, beating your competition and filing for bankruptcy, customer loyalty and defection, etc. IT must embrace these changes/suggestions, but like their counterparts, they are often too busy. The solution is a corporate culture that empowers and supports ALL of its employees to seek out improvements. Of course not all ideas can be implemented, or are worth it, but all should be given proper consideration and due diligence. If not, the competition will.
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